This is quite an old thread now, so don't know if anyone will find this useful.

I'm assuming that your ATi card is in your laptop, so to overclock it, you need to make sure you've got adequet cooling.

I used the ATi tool, but found that the 'find max core' feature will crash it everytime. I think it's just to do with my crappy 32mb card . Anyway, i found the maximum i can get with mine is as following:

I'm mostly new to the laptop world. I have a Dell Inspiron 600m and this same graphics card, and I could afford to upgrade to a 9500 or up. However I have failed to find any website selling laptop video cards. I've also not been able to find any information at all regarding upgrading it myself.

The only reason I'm interested in overclocking is to run The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

well plain and simple your hardware is too old to play the game. oblivion is a very hardware intensive game and i doubt the rest of your hardware could keep up even if u had a newer video card. and laptops are not upgradeable except for a few high end models..

yeah man I'm sorry but kenny's right. What model do you have? there's a possibility you had an upgrade option at the time of buying it (like if there was something they offered as an upgrade to the 9000 at the time), but even then it depends because if it's not user-replaceable (like it's built-on to the mobo even if it's called AGP) then you really can't do it. Love how old this thread is though lol

well plain and simple your hardware is too old to play the game. oblivion is a very hardware intensive game and i doubt the rest of your hardware could keep up even if u had a newer video card. and laptops are not upgradeable except for a few high end models..

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Actually I meet the recommended requirements for everything except my graphics card. I also have a 2.0Ghz CPU instead of 3.0Ghz - but I meet the minimum. That's why this is so frustrating! The game runs but everything in the gameplay appears white.

I did get the highest graphics card offered at the time. I bought this computer last July too. It's unfortunate because the card is my only downfall.

Dang I'm sorry dude. Don't wanna repeat myself but in another thread a couple hours ago I said this to another guy, my old Compaq R3000Z had a crappy MX440 built-in and I spent 2 years looking for upgrades, I even wanted to buy the new R4000Z motherboard but Compaq said it isn't compatible. My computer was the same way too though, I had an Athlon 64 3200+ and 512mb of RAM, everything met requirements but my graphics card. It sucks but that's what you get with laptops (most of the time)

That's horrible. I have a lot of friends here and it works on their laptops. I have a desktop back home but it has one of those lame built-in cards. The Sims 2 barely runs on it (meaning 10 minutes to load) versus the way it runs wonderfully on this computer.

Dell also just released several gaming laptops and of course Alien has many too (my friend just got one).

Oh yeah man, it is a BAAAD feeling when you're helpless with your laptop, I regretted my R3000Z from the day I bought it and found out I couldn't do anything about the graphics card. That's why I got my 9300, it's a downgraded XPS so it's compatible with each and every XPS feature and hardware (check the SOON stuff in my sig, which is happening in the next month) including user-upgradable EVERYTHING, which is what I'm doing. It also cost half as much as the XPS too so if you get a new laptop someday, make sure it's future-compatible (not to mention NOW compatible)

My "gaming" 9300 cost $1400 with all the specs in black in my sig. Altogether it'll cost me another $800 on the XPS upgrades but that's still over $1000 cheaper than an XPS even with the upgrades, PLUS it's even faster than the XPS because I'm getting a dual-core processor.

Well pretty much the same as desktops, they literally are just smaller versions (like PSP and PS2 almost exactly, PSP is slightly less powerful for some reason, just like laptops, but by slightly I mean unnoticable except by a couple hundred points in a bench).

I scored 1,912 in 3DMark 06 with my 6800 Go (NOT the ultra, and it has DDR instead of GDDR3 RAM in it unlike some 6800 cards do) and probably about 5,000 in 3DMark 05 but I haven't tested it (in '05 and '03) yet.

Yes DDR2 is used in Intel based Laptops. I have dual-channel 533mhz 1gb DDR2 in my laptop right now, soon 667mhz and 2gb so yeah new intel laptops (Pentium M, Celeron M and D, Core Duo and Core Solo motherboards) laptops support DDR2

Well pretty much the same as desktops, they literally are just smaller versions (like PSP and PS2 almost exactly, PSP is slightly less powerful for some reason, just like laptops, but by slightly I mean unnoticable except by a couple hundred points in a bench).

I scored 1,912 in 3DMark 06 with my 6800 Go (NOT the ultra, and it has DDR instead of GDDR3 RAM in it unlike some 6800 cards do) and probably about 5,000 in 3DMark 05 but I haven't tested it (in '05 and '03) yet.

Yes DDR2 is used in Intel based Laptops. I have dual-channel 533mhz 1gb DDR2 in my laptop right now, soon 667mhz and 2gb so yeah new intel laptops (Pentium M, Celeron M, Core Duo and Core Solo motherboards) laptops support DDR2

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Thats not bad for a laptop

And do you have to buy any specific hardware such as mobile cpu's, notebook ram, what about "mobile" videocards?

I think it's an quite expensive "hobby" to keep upgrading a notebook with new hardware?

You have to find the same socket CPU, so it doesn't have to be mobile, just the same socket.

Notebook RAM yes, but it's very cheap and easy to come across (I'm not kidding, for some reason it's cheaper than desktop RAM)

And graphics cards, no, that's specifically for laptops like mine, you can't just go out and buy them. Like I keep saying, my 9300 is an XPS and the XPS had the upgrade of a 7800GTX and people have already confirmed that the 9300 is fully compatible with the 7800GTX (with some modding).

But in my place I'm in, it's actually CHEAPER to upgrade my laptop than my desktop. For the desktop I'd have to get a new $300 processor to outdo what I have now, and a new $300 graphics card (AGP) and $200 for 2gb RAM, which is exactly what I would be spending on my laptop, but seeing as how my desktop still isn't running, and even with the upgrades my laptop has more potential than my desktop, I think you know where I'm coming from now.

Is there any way of opening up the laptop to see if the card is replaceable? Short of calling Dell or ATI I have no way of figuring that out.

Selling both computers is definately an option, though I don't have any reason too. I'll probably just end up buying Oblivion for the XBox 360, but that's also at home in MI, not in GA with me. And from what I've found it would only cost $10 more to upgrade my laptop, which would benefit the entire computer's system instead of just having one game for a gaming system.

well there is but with some company's I think that voids the warranty if they see used screws or something. I would say call whoever made your laptop, and ask to speak to a HIGH GUY, avoid the indians as much as humanly possible (not only are they incomprehendable but they know NOTHING about computers), and ask him if there was ever another computer made with the same motherboard as yours and if there was, what graphics options it had.

Also P4, were you talking to Answer or me about the "gaming" rig? And as I said earlier in the post you quoted me on, I get 1,912 on 3DMark 06 right now (with less than half the power I'm upgrading to).